Page:1909historyofdec04gibbuoft.djvu/386

 334 THE DECLINE AND FALL [Chap, xli edified by the apparent respect of Belisarius for the successor of St. Peter, and his rigid discipline secured in the midst of war the blessings of tranquillity and justice. They applauded the rapid success of his arms, which overran the adjacent country, as far as Narni, Perusia, and Spoleto ; but they trembled, the senate, the clergy, and the unwarlike people, as soon as they understood that he had resolved, and would speedily be reduced, to sustain a siege against the powers of the Gothic monarchy. The designs of Vitiges were executed, during the winter season, with diligence and effect. From their rustic habitations, from their distant gar- risons, the Goths assembled at Ravenna for the defence of their country; and such were their numbers that, after an army had been detached for the relief of Dalmatia, one hundred and fifty thousand fighting men marched under the royal standard. Ac- cording to the degrees of rank or merit, the Gothic king distributed arms and horses, rich gifts, and liberal promises ; he moved along the Flaminian way, declined the useless sieges of Perusia and Spoleto, respected the impregnable rock of Narni, and arrived [Feb. 20] within two miles of Rome at the foot of the Milvian bridge. 84 The narrow passage was fortified with a tower, and Belisarius had computed the value of the twenty days which must be lost in the construction of another bridge. But the consternation of the soldiers of the tower, who either fled or deserted, dis- appointed his hopes, and betrayed his person into the most imminent danger. At the head of one thousand horse, the Roman general sallied from the Flaminian gate to mark the ground of an advantageous position, and to survey the camp of the Barbarians ; but, while he still believed them on the other side of the Tiber, he was suddenly encompassed and assaulted by their innumerable squadrons. The fate of Italy depended on his life ; and the deserters pointed to the conspicuous horse, a bay, 85 with a white face, which he rode on that memorable day. "Aim at the bay horse," was the universal cry. Every bow 84 [Procopius speaks of a "bridge over the Tiber at 14 stadia from Borne". This is the Milvian bridge according to Hodgkin (4, 134), the Salarian according to L. Fink (Das Verhaltniss der Aniobriicken zur mulvischen Briicke in Prokops Gotenkrieg, 1907). For the numbers of the army of Vitiges cp. Leuthold, op. cit., p. 51-3.] 85 An horse of a bay or red colour was styled <pdios by the Greeks, balan by the Barbarians, and spadix by the Bomans. Honesti spadices, says Virgil (Georgio. 1. iii. 72, with the Observations of Martin and Heyne). 1wd5i£ or fidiov signifies a branch of the palm-tree, whose name, <poivi£, is synonymous to red (Aulus Gellius, ii. 26).